ASI found 15% of consumers throw away their promotional product when they’ve finished with it. Where as 67% of people will pass the product on to someone else–increasing cost per impression.

But your exposure doesn’t stop there.

People talk.

And getting customers to say nice things about you is as effective as traditional advertising. Giving away free, useful products is possibly the easiest and best way to get people talking positively about your company.

4. Stand out From the Crowd

The majority of business fall victim to the boring, mundane practises when it comes to showcasing their brand to customers.

It’s true, business cards serve a purpose. But, think for a moment, when was the last time you received one? Where is it now?

Yeah, me neither.

Unless you’re really creative with your business card, they don’t have the ‘wow, cool’ factor.

Providing your customer with a well-thought out promotional product that’s useful for their day-to-day life tells them you care. But, most importantly for you, reminds them you exist.

Fact: More than 50% of consumers keep a promotional product anywhere from 1 year to 4 years+! Compare that to a Facebook ad they see once and it’s gone in a second.

5. Budget-Friendly

If you’re a small business owner, or you’re working with a limited budget for advertising and marketing, promotional products can be your saviour.

Most promotional products like coffee mugs or custom USB drives are cheap to invest in, but are useful everyday tools your customers and clients will find useful.

And remember, when most people are done with their gift, they’ll pass it on. This means, unlike TV ads or billboards, who’s messaging has a deadline, your budget-friendly promotional product has a much longer lifespan.

This study shows promotional products have a lower cost-per-impression in the U.S., than prime-time television advertising, national magazine advertising and newspaper ads, and a similar CPI to spot radio and Internet advertising.

6. Gifts Feel Great

People don’t like ads. Ads are selling. Where as gifts, gifts feel great.

Fact: 48% of consumers would like to receive promotional products more often.

Free gifts are more desirable than discounts–even if the discount helps them save money or get more value from their purchase.

An article title, “Something Doesn’t Add Up”, in The Economist discussed a studying done by the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. They found consumers much prefer getting something for free over getting something cheaper.

Participants had a choice of getting 33% more coffee or 33% off the regular price of coffee. More people wanted an extra 33% over the discount. Even though the discount is a better deal in terms of cost per ounce.

They found out people thought a 33% increase in quantity was the same as a 33% discount. Where as, actually, the discount is equal to getting 50% more.

Here’s the thing, and why promotional products work so great:

As a species, we’re driven by emotions; preferring to gain rather than lose.

People view a discount as reducing the the amount they have to gain. Where as getting something for free is seen as a gain.

7. Boost Your Sales

It doesn’t make sense, but promotional event (i.e Free Comic Book Day) are huge money makers. Even though logic dictates giving away free stuff should cost your company money.

And it comes down to something called “The Reciprocity Principle.” The feeling that you need to do something because of what someone else has done for you.

Randy Garner, a professor of behavioral science, states the reciprocate feeling can occur even though we never requested a favor in the first place.

You’d expect people to come in, get their free slurpee and walk out. But, that’s not what actually happens.

You see, most people walk in, try the sample size, decide they want a bigger Slurpee that’s not part of the giveaway.

According to USA Today, their Slurpee sales skyrocketed by 38%, even though they gave away 4.5million free drinks.

8. Can Add a Personal Touch

If you’ve done your research, know your customer base and what makes them tick, you can add a personal dimension to your marketing message.

Personalization can help customers develop a passion for your brand, values, and products.

Take Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign as an example:

It consisted of personalised names on Coke bottles in the UK. Simple, but effective, it created a personal relationship with their consumers, who could contact coke to request their name to be printed onto a bottle.

The results? On their site, Coca-Cola said over 730,000 glass bottles were personalized via their ecommerce store.

9. Generate Leads

This infographic below, created by WearePromtionalProducts, shows when promotional products are used as an advertising medium, they have a 50.7% success rate of call to action–out-performing TV and radio.

10. Boost Employee Morale

Often overlooked, promotional products can offer excellent internal value as well as external.

By offering gifts to your staff, you’ll boost their morale and loyalty because it reminds them they’re valued within the company.

And if the products you offer useful for everyday purposes, you’ll gain the benefits of increased brand awareness when they’re using it outside of the workplace.

You could consider creating an awards program suiting your work-culture, employees, and corporate goals. This can help increase morale and energy, especially if it’s a sales environment.

The Benefits are Clear

There’s no denying the benefits of promotional products. Get it right, and you’ll build relationships and drive more sales.

But get it wrong, and you’re in for a PR nightmare.

In the next section, we’re going to discuss how you can choose the right promo gift for your brand and audience.

How to Choose the Right Promo Product for Your Brand

The power of promotional products is real:

L.J. Market Research found 52% of participants did business with a company who offered a promotional item.

But if you want to get the most of of your promo product, you’ll need to execute the process of choosing and distributing them properly.

Let’s take a look at how you can do that.

1. Do Your Research and Know Your Audience

The goods or services you sell are setup to solve your target markets pains and help them achieve their goals.

How do you decide on these? You research your market.

The same needs to be done for promotional products or you’ll risk failure. Here are some key things you should consider when researching your market in order to choose the right promotional product:

Is there a promo product you could choose that relates to your companies product or service?

What promotional offers do your competitors offer?

How can you improve on your competitors promotional products?

What do your target customers have in common? (age, geographic location, hobbies, etc.)?

Whether this is a particular campaign, initiative, or event, it’s vital you understand your audience before choosing your promotional product.

If you offer an item they’re actually interested in, you’ll gain the most brand recognition and are more likely to see a positive ROI.

Here’s a great example:

Vantage Detergent (a Brazilian company), handed out free packets of stain remover in the shape of a ketchup stain to restaurants and bars around São Paulo.

7-Eleven took their social media to the next level with their mustache slurpee straw promotion. They were available in four different styles to please everyone’s ‘stache preference’, and fed on the #selfie fad.

The promotional campaign was a huge success, with users posting countless images on their social media accounts–generating over 1.5 million impressions.

6. Focus on Personalized Usability

Your number one goal is to enhance your brand’s image. So you don’t want to just give something for the sake of it.

Your promotional product needs to be useful.

69% of consumers would pick up a promo produced they deemed useful, and 77% say a promotional products usefulness is the best reason to keep it.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you the answer. I could tell you how flash drives are considered the most popular promo gift, but, if your target audience have no use for flash drives, you’re not going to get very far.

Remember useful to one person could be annoying to another.

Rather than focusing on what everyone else says is a good promotional item, look at what your audience wants.

It all comes back to the first point: Know Your Audience.

If you’re sponsoring a sports event, handing out flash drives won’t be a great idea. Where as handing out towels with your logo on–people may appreciate that.

But, how many blog posts have you read telling you how great towels are as a promotional product? Not many. You should focus away from what others are doing and focus on your audience and campaign.

And ultimately, ask yourself this question: Does my audience have use for this promo product?

If your answer is yes, you’re heading in the right direction.

Then you want to think about this–can my audience use this item in an environment where they make decisions about using your product or service?

Let’s say you’re going after executive decision makers in corporations. Aim to give them an item they can use at their desk so you’re always around when they’re making decision.

7. Quality or Quantity?

It’s a common question asked.

Look, the main selling point for quantity is you can distribute more promotional items for less money. And yes, sometimes this works.

If low cost items like stickers, pens, and paper products make sense for your audience, it might be something you want to go for.

But remember this…

… your promotional products reflects your brand.

If you give away cheap products that quickly break, your audience is going to associate you with being cheap and low-quality.

It’s better to look at promotional products as a way to enhance your image and a way to connect with your audience. Not to give out as many as possible with your logo on it.

We know from the statistics we discussed, there’s big potential for your audience to hold onto your product and then pass it on if it’s good.

So in my opinion, it’s always better to go quality over quantity.

The Power of Promotional Gifts

Yes, promotional products are proven to be a cost-effective tactic to drive consumers to your business, build recognition, and brand loyalty.

But, that’s not to say promotional products will suffice as your whole marketing strategy. Rather, this should be used to compliment your overall strategy.

There’s no denying it. Get your promotional product right and you’ll gain a competitive advantage over your competition.